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I REALLY want Gonzaga to be a 1 seed in our region if we don't earn a 1 seed ourselves. I almost think this would be slightly better given the fact that you have less pressure as a 2 and Gonzaga is closer to a true 3-seed than a 1.

Man, I think you guys are really underestimating how Gonzaga matches up with us. Did you see the trouble we had with Nix and Payne this year? Because Olynyk and Harris are better, probably the best big-man duo in the nation. I know, I know, weak schedule and all, but if I'm trying to figure out teams I want to face in the tourney, teams with deep, talented front courts are not on that list.

because I think if MSU played in the WCC, Nix and Payne would be getting called the greatest big man duo in the history of the game. I'll be very interested to see how Gonzaga does in the tourney when all of a sudden they have to play multiple big games in a row

Sure, I agree that Gonzaga is almost definitely overrated and will probably get upset somewhere along the line, but I still think that's a matchup nightmare for Michigan if they did end up playing each other.

And let's not act like Gonzaga hasn't played anyone this year. Olynyk has 20 points in just 19 minutes against Kansas St., and went for 21 & 9 in 23 minutes against Oklahoma St. Harris had 20 & 7 against Butler in 22 minutes. Say what you want about Gonzaga as a team, but that front court has proven it's legit.

Perhaps it would be a tough matchup, but I think the odds are pretty good that Gonzaga doesn't even make it to the elite 8. Which would give Michigan a chance to advance to the final four without facing anyone higher than a 3-seed. Pretty good deal.

I would have said that I put 1 year's salary on a michigan zags game against you. as stated before, their guard play vs our guard play is an amazing matchup that i would take without any other analysis

Gonzaga is in a conference that has no legitimate teams this year. They are 5-2 against teams that were ranked in the top 50 at the time they played; two of those wins were against St Mary's which is similarly overrated.

In other words, they are 3-2 against legitimate top 50 teams, with wins against KSU, OK, and OK St. They lost to Illinois and Butler. Everyone else they have played has been a tomato can or a JTTS.

Gonzaga would be hard-pressed to win 8 games in the Big Ten. I would love to see them in Michigan's bracket.

This probably is a silly argument since we're unlikely to play them anyway, but most of you guys are wrong about Gonzaga. They are good. They are very good. #1 seed good? Probably not. But if you've watched them at all, you know they're an excellent team. You don't get to be #4 on KenPom just by playing in a bad conference - if that were true, Memphis would be higher than 37. Gonzaga is going to be a popular upset pick, and a lot of people are going to be surprised by how good that team is. Lots of teams (Michigan included) can deal with one elite big man - it's why a team like Kansas or Duke doesn't scare me much. But there are very few teams that can handle both Olynyk and Harris. Having two elite big men is such a huge luxury and makes them super underrated. Throw in the fact that Kevin Pangos is a really, really good PG, and you have a team that is going to surprise people in the tourney. I'll leave it at that.

Gonzaga would be a tough matchup. Also, I am not so sure we would see New Mexico in the Sweet 16. I think we might see VCU and they present another list of problems. They are the Arkansas reincarnation of 40 minutes of hell from the 1990's. It could get ugly watching Hardaway and our freshmen throw the ball away left and right against that pressure. Michigan has seen nothing like what they would see if they played VCU. I am hoping that Michigan does not see really strong defensive teams or teams with really good frontcourts. Early on, that may be realistic. If we advance, we are likely to see one or both.

Gonzaga's big man duo is called the best because they compete in a conference with no big men that can match their size and physical play. The minute they have to face a team that has big men with actual size, they are done. Two 7 footers versuses like 6'8" guys isn't exactly that difficult. Gonzaga shouldn't even be in the top 10 let alone #1 and a 1 seed.

I live in ACC country, and honestly, there's not a team in that entire conference that scares me. At least not anywhere near the level that some of the teams in the Big 10 do. I'd rather play Duke twice than Indiana one time.

Beilein doesn't go with "2 Bigs" enough for us to hold the Canes inside. However, I think Robinson would do as well as anyone could vs. Ryan Kelly's inside/outside game. I've seen medicore guys really shut Plumlee down (relatively speaking). I think Morgan would be fine vs. him (relatively speaking).

That said, I still don't want UNC in the 2nd round.

Also, VCU is in this bracket. That pressure would give us FITS!

I completely disagree with the OP. I'd want to be the 2-seed in the SOUTH.

I posted on the mgoboard for the first time this week (which was a terrible idea). But no, not anymore posts than usually. Gotta be the hijacked avatar. We will see about this whole add a block m thing.

We do not want to see Louisville, I think their fast paced, fast break transition offense would be too much. (See State & IU game) Our D played alot better Sunday however I still don't know how deep we will go. We started out so strong and now..... We are under achieving. I am just trying to be realistic not negative guys. I hope we win it all but our D is not looking good, neither is our offense for that matter. If it weren't for Trey this team has 8-10 losses IMO. Still not terrible but this is Michigan FORGODSAKES!

But if this were a final bracket, the two hardest teams Michigan could potentially play are probably OSU and UNC. That's a very strange bracket, because it is asking for a ton of upsets. Arizona is probably the best 5 seed and San Diego St can do some damage. That being said, New Mexico is probably the weakest of the 3 seeds (but could still do some damage), Gonzaga seems to be the weakest of the 1's.

I think this bracket is way off even as of now though. I think both UNC and UCLA end up getting higher seeds, as both have been playing well of late (UCLA looked really good the other night). The committee looks at how you've been doing lately significantly when placing teams, and I expect both those teams to be at least a 6, and potentially all the way up to a 4 depending on how the rest of the season goes. As of now I'd rather play any of the 5's or 6's before playing UCLA or UNC.

The conference tounaments throw such a monkeywrench into any projection. Imagine the seed spread between UM winning their last two regular season games and the Big10 tournament verses losing one more game(6 conference losses) and perhaps a loss in the 3rd game of the Big10 tournament. That would make the difference from a #1 seed to as low as a #4 seed.

Considering that the Big10 is considered by the pundits the most difficult conference, I can't imagine us not getting a #1 seed if we ended up splitting home & home with Indiana and having to two beat two of the premier teams to win the entire thing.

I think this braket would be a tough braket ( not that there is such a thing as "An easy braket" ). VCU is gonna be a tough team to beat, North Carolina has been on fire of late. Gonzaga is a very good team ( are they a #1? Probably not but I wouldn't want to face them early.) And ohio is sitting there at a 4? This is a tough braket.

Sure, they are a Mountain West team so by name recognition it's not as scary as facing Duke, but their lineup would worry me. Their top minutes guys (20+ per game) are:

Kendall Williams - 6'4" guard

Tony Snell - 6'7" guard / forward

Alex Kirk - 7'0" center

Hugh Greenwood - 6'3" guard

Cameron Bairstow - 6'9" forward

Chad Adams - 6'6" guard / forward

They don't shoot a lot of 3's and seem to feed the ball down low to their 7'0" center pretty regularly. So having a height advantage at pretty much every position in a slower-tempo game just doesn't look like the matchup we'd want, right?

Interesting bracket. New Mexico is weak for a #3 and I'd be fine with Gonzaga as the #1. North Carolina might be tough for a #7 but that's life. The real interesting matchup would be VCU (if they beat New Mexico, and kenpom does have VCU as the better team). Not sure how that would work out. Burke's so great but Hardaway's handle is terrible against traps or in the open court and Stauskas isn't good at that either. You'd have to play LeVert 30 minutes as we'd need his handle against that D and either go real small or cut Hardaway/Stauskas' minutes. Anyway, still probably a very favorable bracket overall.

The Georgetown bracket has a bunch of teams that can't score (Georgetown, Pitt, Wisconsin) and that usually isn't a recipe for success. It also has Florida and Miami who are each lacking in big wins. I think a healthy NC St. does damage in that bracket.

Given that this is truly hypothetical- If these were the brackets it would be interesting to see us match up with UNC in the 2nd round. James Michael McAdoo would be a very tough matchup for Michigan. The uptempo style may also be somewhat troublesome for us.

Honestly, I'd hate to play either Ohio State or Gonzaga on the other side if we were to make it past VCU/New Mexico. Craft has a way of challenging Burke, and DeShawn Thomas seems to perform very well against our defense. I wouldn't sleep on the combination of Pangos/Olynyk from Gonzaga either. Pangos is a very good guard and Olynyk is better than any of our bigs. Mark Few is also an awesome coach, probably COTY at this point in the season...and he's had a pretty impressive tournament resume.

The overall quality of our hypothetical region is probably a step below at least 2 of the others, but I don't think I'd want to play out in LA for the regional semis/finals.

I don't know if this has been brought up, so I didn't want to start a thread about it and get killed. But has anyone considered Sparty fans, classy as they always are, jumping on the bandwagon of whomever we're playing to make it a neutral at best crowd? I don't know how it's worked with UNC and Duke in the same building, but most conference fans cheer for each other in these tournaments.

I'm sure we'd cheer against Sparty, but I can see them resorting to lowest common denominator status and cheering harder against us than for its own team in its game.

I noticed this a lot early in the B1G season, when all the bracket projections had Minnesota ahead of MSU and getting the second protected spot in Auburn Hills. I thought they would be much less likely to jump on the opppenent's bandwagon and less likely to eat up tickets Michigan fans would otherwise buy. But then Minny went into their swoon while MSU figured things out, and the we've pretty much been resigned to the split crowd.

As a UNC hoops fan, (ya I like UNC hoops and Michigan football, deal with it) I think this would be a fun match up. They are very similar in terms of their offensive play, (both rely heavily on the 3), and do not play great D. I think UNCs tempo could give Michigan a bit of trouble, but on the other hand, Trey would abuse Paige or Strickland. Neither have a great inside game. McAdoo is not your typical low post player, but he has been playing better as of late. Both teams are fairly young, but very athletic. UNC is a decent rebounding team even though they are playing small. It would really be an interesting game. Both teams would get open looks from 3, I guess it is just a matter of who is on that day.

I saw them play Loyola (they hammered them) and are very talented...but would get beat up in the BIG this year. That said...good for them...they had a weak schedule and took care of business like they should...just hope if we are a 2 they are our 1!

to Illinois was eons ago. They play in a weak conference for sure, but I've watched them play. They're talented and well coached, with a very good big man. People on this blog that think we have a regional won if Gonzaga is the #1 in that regional better calm the fuck down.

That has upset written all over it. UNC is frankly a more athletic team (size, speed, etc), or at least they seem that way. They have an experienced coach that could expose our weak defense. Granted, it would be a home game for the most part. Still, I'd rather face the weaker teams up front and have a tougher 16 on, especially with the kind of attitude this team seems to have. I'm scared they'll tip-toe into a match with a 7 seed.

With MSU also being put in Auburn Hills for their first two games, is there any concern about them backing UNC? I know Michigan will be well represented (especially vs UNC) but we've all seen UNC fans turn out and rout against Duke when both play in Greensboro.

Also could be interesting to see if B1G fans band together in San Jose.

Just to show everyone what another site has, the algorithm at TeamRankings Bracketogpahy has us being the #3 in the Midwest, facing off against Stony Brook and then the winner of Colorado and La Salle.

As for the Big Ten, in the West, they go with Indiana at #1 and Minnesota at #7. In the South bracket, #3 goes to Michigan State and Wisconsin is the high team in the dreaded 5-12 against Wichita State.

I wasn't lying last week when I said the B1G Championship Final Four could be more compelling than the NCAA Final Four.

I'm not going to say this is the best year for a conference ever. The Big East was just DISGUSTING a few years back (I believe UConn won the NCAA Tournament). Those 2-3 years of the Big East were just as good as this year of the B1G. I do take this B1G over the ACC because typically that was just Duke and Carolina...and maybe Maryland or FSU or NC St. in some years.

It would not shock me to see 5-6 teams in the Sweet 16, 4-5 in the Elite 8 and 2 in the Final Four.

Don't forget about Minnesota. They're more than capable of making a run deep in the tournament. I actually had them in my Elite 8 along with Michigan, Indiana and MSU.

I didn't think Wisky has enough firepower on offense and I think Ohio is too much of a 1-man show in Thomas. Not saying that either won't make it, it's about matchups...but without seeing a bracket, those were my thoughts.

Ohio - OUT in Round of 32
Wisc - OUT in Round of 32
Minnesota - OUT in Sweet 16
MSU - OUT in Sweet 16
Indiana - OUT in Championship
Michigan - 2013 NCAA Champions

They have also beaten Kansas State and have a win against a decent Oklahoma team. Their conference schedule is very weak but they are 5-0 against the Big 12 and have a 1 point loss at Butler. With the way, a lot of the top teams have lost in games they shouldn't have, I don't have a problem this year with them getting a one seed (as long as it is not at our expense).

After reading all of yall posts, I can come to the conclusion that Michigan can't beat anyone that they face in the tournament and that they will be out in the third round. It's funny, just a couple of years ago, we were looking at joe lunardi every week seeing if we were the last four in or last four out now we are either a 1 seed or 2 seed, must be nice not to worry about the bubble. If we play like we played when we played NCstate, pitt or kansas state we can beat anybody. The big ten prepared us for any type of team that we will face. So michigan will be final four or bust in my opinion no matter what bracket we are in.